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Fernand Lopez famously had a nasty split with his former star pupil Francis Ngannou a few years ago. The coach now works with Ciryl Gane who is set to challenge Ngannou for his UFC championship.
Fernand Lopez spoke on The MMA Hour and gave some more details on the split. It appears the issues came with UFC star Francis Ngannou not wanting to pay the gym fees.
“During the time that we live together, I asked him to step out of the gym twice, myself and Francis,” UFC fighter coach Lopez said on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani (via MMA News). “When Francis fought against Anthony Hamilton [in 2016], that fight, I choose to not go. I said to him, ‘I’m not coaching you anymore, I need you to step out of the gym.’ Because Francis said to me, ‘There’s a guy who is calling to get money in the gym from fighters, membership.’ And Francis said to me, ‘I’m the one bringing the (spot)light in the gym. I shall not pay any membership.’”
“I said, ‘This is crazy.’ I mean, you must be crazy. You spent four years on your life, for free in my gym. I never asked you for anything, any penny. And now that you’re not poor anymore, and I keep bringing poor guys in my gym, there’s around 40 guy homeless in my gym, poor people that I’m taking care of them. I call that ‘file zero.’ When a guy shows up in my gym, I send him to my secretary and I say, ‘Give him file zero.’ Means take him to the gym for free.”
“And I said ‘Okay, you become a successful man, you have money, you pay me 10 percent. On top of the 10 percent, you ask me to pay the sparring partner with that money that you give me. On top of that, you’re saying that that will be shame to know that a big man like you is paying the membership.’ You know how much is the membership in a year in my gym? €600. €600 per year, one year. And he said, ‘No, I will not pay.’”
“So, I said, ‘You know what, you don’t listen to me anymore when I’m giving the class, you choose the easy way to train, please let’s just split.’ And he did.”
The split was nasty as Francis Ngannou fought for the UFC heavyweight championship and came out on the losing end. This was the final straw as the now champion put a lot of blame on his team.
Ciryl Gane will have the opportunity to avenge his team and earn the UFC heavyweight championship. Fernand Lopez will be in his corner coaching him through it.
